6 Movie Scenes That Looked Like They Were CGI, But They Weren't (7 Photos)

Almost every modern film uses CGI: it replaces the backgrounds of scenes, rejuvenates or ages the actors, multiplies the crowd, and in blockbusters entire scenes are “drawn” on the computer.





"The Dark Knight Rises"



Christopher Nolan is known not only for his twisted plots, thanks to which he is both seriously and ironically called a genius, but also for the fact that he does not use computer graphics in those moments in which it seems as if they could not have been done without it.

At first glance, it might seem that the scene on the plane at the beginning of the Dark Knight threequel was filmed first on a sound stage and then with the help of visual effects, but the scene in which the plane is suspended, then people crawl over the remains of the plane, and then it is thrown to the ground , was filmed without the use of graphics using stuntmen.

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon"





Michael Bay has never been shy about using CGI in his films, especially the Transformers series, which featured Michael Bay's signature sound, lots of visual effects, and even more US flags to emphasize the patriotism of Bay and his characters.

But there were difficult scenes even without the help of special effects. The soldiers who jumped from the plane and flew onto the wingsuits were actually played by stuntmen. Eventually the explosions around had to be drawn, but this impressive jump was hard work by specially trained people. It is noteworthy that this scene featured first-person shots because the stuntmen had action cameras on their helmets that filmed their entire jump.

"Lord of the Rings"



Typically, the roles of gnomes and dwarfs were played by actors who were actually dwarfs. But because of their appearance, it was impossible to find actors who would play the hobbits. And the dwarves in both “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” were played by actors of normal height, and some were even taller than many of the other actors in both trilogies.

It was all about forced perspective. The camera and actors were positioned so that two actors of roughly the same height could look like a tall adult and a short child together. During the filming of such scenes, the actors were usually far from each other and thanks to this a similar effect was created, but in “The Hobbit” Peter Jackson abandoned it and therefore, in many scenes, the actors who played the dwarves and hobbits were filmed separately and the actors who played everyone the rest.

"Spider-Man"



It seemed impossible to catch food on a tray the way Peter Parker did in the first Spider-Man. But in fact, this is possible, only with one small nuance - a magnet. The tray and all the food contained magnets.

Sam Raimi decided not to use computer graphics, as in the second part with Otto, whose tentacles were real and were controlled by ordinary people.

To perform the food scene, Tobey Maguire needed to go through 155 takes and only the 156th was successful. It would be extremely annoying if Kirsten Dunst forgot her line during take 156.

"Iron Man 3"



Who definitely cannot live without computer graphics is the Marvel film studio, which uses graphics wherever possible. In some scenes, the actors don't even wear their character's costumes, but rather body motion capture suits. For example, all the white time travel suits in Avengers: Endgame were actually created using computer graphics.

Considering this, what can we say about real actions. “Naturally, all scenes are created using computer graphics,” fans might think, but this is not true at all.

In the movie Iron Man 3, Tony Stark rescues people who fell through a hole in a plane and are sent into open flight. In this scene, the fall was real, and Iron Man and the falling people were played by real stuntmen from the Red Bull Skydiving Team.

This team delights their fans not only in films but also in their regular videos where they perform crazy flights.

"Mission Impossible"



Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible film series can be given special time because he performs all the stunts of his character himself and takes great risks every time, because these stunts cannot be imagined in your head, but he does them in real life.

In the second part, he climbed the rocks himself with one safety rope and jumped as no one in their right mind would jump. In the fifth part, Tom Cruise held on to the plane and flew with it. Naturally, at that moment Tom was insured in every possible way, and at the same time his eyes and ears were closed, so he did not hear or see anything, but only felt how he was being blown away, and how small stones were hitting him, flying out of the engine. In the fourth part, Tom climbed the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai and worked like that for several days, because the helicopters on which the cameras were located could only stay in the air for half an hour. In the seventh part, he even rode along the jump on a motorcycle and flew into the abyss with it.

In all of these scenes, CGI was used only to remove Tom Cruise's insurance from the frame.